What's the scariest thing you have ever done.

[MarkRobinson]

192mph on the freeway in my 911 turbo.

[recycled sixtie]

The scariest moment was when I was a low time pilot building hours on a Cessna 150 and I was too cocky for my own good. I was by myself and took off from Cranbrooke Brit. Columbia. The wind was NW gusting up to about 30mph. As soon as I took off the turbulence in the mountains was horrendous. I proceeded down the Crowsnest Pass and could not climb above the mountain tops to get out of the turbulence because there was an overcast layer sitting on top of the mountains. Having climbed to a decent height I found that I had a very strong tailwind from the NW. I was approaching a 90 degree turn to the left and I felt that the strong wind would blow me into the canyon wall. I cranked lots of aileron in to make a steep left turn and I managed to avoid hitting the mountain. In the meantime the turbulence continued and it was so rough I felt sick. I arrived over Lethbridge Alberta and turned north to go to Calgary my destination. My groundspeed was zero as I was pointed north looking down at the Lethbridge airport. The wind speed on the ground was 45-60 mph per hour so the wind where I was must have been 90-100mph as that is about as fast as a C150 flies. If I tried to land at Lethbridge I might wreck the aircraft.

I checked the weather at other places and CutBank , Montana had lighter winds. I advised customs there and landed an hour later. I slept in the hangar that night and returned to Calgary the next morning.

[ramonesfreak]

first day i got my first motorcycle. never rode a street bike and bought a harley on long island and had to ride it back to manhattan. the guy at the dealer gave me the keys and said "have fun" and that was it. now what do i do? that first right hand turn out onto Sunrise Highway and all the way back home in the rain was easily the most terrifying thing i have personally done.

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by Dottore

A decompression dive in a Boeing 757. From 35,000 feet to 10,000 feet in about two minutes. Strait down. Without warning. Everything that wasn't bolted on and buckled in ended up on the back bulkhead. So terrifying that most of the passengers collectively shat their pants. By the time we pulled out of the dive the stench was unbearable.

dude that and seeing a large shark approaching me are my worst nightmares. ive had bad experiences on planes but not that bad. wow

[pete3799]

I hauled a generator set powered by a locomotive engine (minus the generator) from Springville, Utah to Florida (the town escapes me at the moment) back about 4 years ago.
Gross weight of 110,000lbs. 10foot 6 wide over interstate 70 through Colorado. I've only been over this route a few times in the last 30 years but never overweight. Climbing over the Rockies pulling 76,000lbs. behind you is slow going. Transmission and rear-end temp. gauges were almost pegged (250*) when i hit the top.

After letting things cool off for 45 mins. or so i started down the other side keeping it geared down on the steeper sections (25-30 MPH). Once i got a ways past the weigh station the road opens up to 3 lanes and and i figured the worst was behind me so i geared it up a few.
Bad move on my part as it's still rather steep from Golden to Denver.

Needless to say i had to keep hitting the brakes to keep my speed down and after a short while the smoke commenced to roll off the brakes big time. Now i'm committed as there's no way i can stop this thing.
White knuckled and sweating profusely i managed to keep from bursting into flame and made it down to were it leveled off enough for the jake brake (engine brake) to hold my speed without the use of the foot brakes.
I'm just thankful that there wasn't a traffic jam or accident back up before i hit the bottom.

I still wake up in a cold sweat dreaming about what could have happened.

[svandamme]

500 ug of LSD-25 kinda spooked me a bit..

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by svandamme

500 ug of LSD-25 kinda spooked me a bit..

pussy

[Jeff Higgins]

Knocked flat on my ass by a black bear. No fun looking up at him. Thankfully, he was more frightened than I was.

[sammyg2]

Fought 7 refinery fires.
The kind that burns your face from 50 yards away.
I don't do that anymore.

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Knocked flat on my ass by a black bear. No fun looking up at him. Thankfully, he was more frightened than I was.

This begs for more details. A photo would have been perfect but will settle for details instead

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by recycled sixtie

This begs for more details. A photo would have been perfect but will settle for details instead

I was fly fishing a stream up in our North Cascades with a buddy of mine and our two dogs. Just kind of a day hike up the stream, fishing promissing pools as we went. This is great bear habitiat (I've knocked several on their own asses, so to speak, up there) so, out of habit, I had a single action strapped to my hip.

We had arrived at the "trailhead" (there isn't really an official one, we just embark from the town of Newhalem, a Seattle City Light company town supporting one of their dams) before daylight. It was early evening, however, as we were coming down the trail, approaching the town. My buddy suggested it wouldn't be all that great to walk right through town with the gun on my hip, so I put it in my day pack.

Not five minute later, his dog (who had run some distance ahead) came hauling ass back up the trail to us, black bear in hot pursuit. She was clearly looking to us for "help" with her situation, and immediately hid behind my buddy.

Meanwhile, having seen the bear, I had dropped my pack and was on one knee trying to get my gun back out. Damn zipper stuck, as they are wont to do when one is in somewhat of a hurry. The bear stopped, sized up the situation, and came straight at me at full speed, from about two or three yards away. No time to do anything but smile...

Well, as it turned out, he only "came for me" because I was in his way to get the hell outa there. He bowled me over like a 300 pound lineman (which, come to think of it, he was, only smarter) and used me for traction as he charged away up the trail. And yes, he was a "he" - that was confirmed as he went over the top of me.

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

I was fly fishing a stream up in our North Cascades with a buddy of mine and our two dogs. Just kind of a day hike up the stream, fishing promissing pools as we went. This is great bear habitiat (I've knocked several on their own asses, so to speak, up there) so, out of habit, I had a single action strapped to my hip.

We had arrived at the "trailhead" (there isn't really an official one, we just embark from the town of Newhalem, a Seattle City Light company town supporting one of their dams) before daylight. It was early evening, however, as we were coming down the trail, approaching the town. My buddy suggested it wouldn't be all that great to walk right through town with the gun on my hip, so I put it in my day pack.

Not five minute later, his dog (who had run some distance ahead) came hauling ass back up the trail to us, black bear in hot pursuit. She was clearly looking to us for "help" with her situation, and immediately hid behind my buddy.

Meanwhile, having seen the bear, I had dropped my pack and was on one knee trying to get my gun back out. Damn zipper stuck, as they are wont to do when one is in somewhat of a hurry. The bear stopped, sized up the situation, and came straight at me at full speed, from about two or three yards away. No time to do anything but smile...

Well, as it turned out, he only "came for me" because I was in his way to get the hell outa there. He bowled me over like a 300 pound lineman (which, come to think of it, he was, only smarter) and used me for traction as he charged away up the trail. And yes, he was a "he" - that was confirmed as he went over the top of me.

Thanks for that. That is one of the best bear stories I have ever heard. At least nobody got hurt

[Seahawk]

Lot's of flight stuff, not scary in the sense that I was well trained to do it but the envelope was pushed just a tad. Looking back is was mostly mistakes on my part.

The scariest day of my life was on the Gauley River. I have kayaked most of my life and was also a rafting guide for many years.

I ran mostly western rivers and, when I was stationed in Maryland decided to dip my toe in the Gauley, a river in West Virginia.

The river was up but still very technical with lots of volume. And it was cold. I had the right gear but paddling in cold water and weather was new to me.

I made a few mistakes early in the run and got hurt, shoulder. The river just beat me since I couldn't brace well and my digs were poor and I was well behind the river, so much so that I became afraid.

And this went on and on, no way out without a fight.

This was the first time in my life I really doubted myself, which was scary and I had a right to be afraid.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

pussy

"a bit"
just a bit.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by svandamme

500 ug of LSD-25 kinda spooked me a bit..

1973
Blotter acid
The Exorcist

[svandamme]

So how many times did you spin yer own head?

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by WolfeMacleod

I got married once...

^^^^ This^^^^

[oldE]

Got home from work one evening in Jan '74 and heard the community was out looking for a 5 year old boy who had fallen through the ice in the river that runs through the village. I had spent years canoeing on that river, so loaded up the canoe, drove upstream near the site where he was said to have gone in and asked a guy I knew if he wanted to sit in front and handle the lights.

The river was open where we put in and we had a clear lead for a mile. The river was shallow (knee deep or so) with the occasional 'deep hole' and fairly fast, which is why we had open water.

As we came through a quick bend, the current pushed us side ways into the edge of the ice. My biggest fear was the ice would slice open the side of the old cedar/canvas canoe, until the canoe lurched against the ice and my friend threw all his weight to the side away from the ice. We shipped about 50 lbs of water over the gunwale before I got us steady again. The next half mile passed in quiet as I thought about how we almost ended up in the freezing water. As I hauled the canoe out, I asked him why he had shifted his weight do drastically.

His reply? He had never been in a canoe before.
We never found the child's body, but at least we didn't add to the count.

Best
Les

[TechnoViking]

Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, more chemotherapy, more surgery.

[johnco]

I don't get scared, but I've had some exciting times. one time was my first solo at 9hrs. did a power on stall at about 3500'. went into a spin and things got exciting because I didn't know what to do. finally noticed a label that said opposite rudder for spin recovery or something like that. well, I hit the wrong rudder and tightened the spin. still at full power, duh, I finally got it to stop spinning but was diving straight down untilI finally leveled out about 1500' or less. thought about doing it again because that was EXCITING, but didn't. next one my friend and I left the bar about 5-6am after he talked me into flying with him to florida to pick up a friend before the hurricane bearing down on us hit shore. we were on the runway before 8am and took off in the fog. halfway to Mississippi I look over at my friend and his head was cocked over backwards. he had passed out cold. I had 11-12 hrs by then so I was pretty sure I could have landed... if I had known where we were and could have seen the ground thru the fog. anyway, we made it as far as Gulfport and decided to land and spend the night. now it was so foggy you couldn't send ground often and just a small area between fog and clouds to fly. next morning we decided to fly home since the hurricane was a'coming fast. made it as far as lakefront airport in New Orleans andclanded there to spend the night once we found the runway thru the clouds and fog. spent the night barhopping and drinking and decided to leave early next morning for home. plane taking off before us turned around and made an emergency landing because he couldn't see anything thru the 900' ft ceiling of clouds.. not us! took off blind and found clear sky at 700'. halfway home we didn't know where we were, but going in the right directiion. then my buddy tells me we are flying at 700 and there's a 1200ft tower around here somewhere. where.. he didn't know but we might might find it, start looking. thru a hole in the fog and clouds I noticed a place I recognized. a graveyard no less. then we found a PH helicopter flying home to their base near home and followed them up to there and then the highway home. at the airport 900ft landing pattern altitude we couldn't even see the runway so we had to drop down slowly until we saw something long and black that was either the highway or the runway. finally landed and drove home trying to see the road thru the thick fog